If the S&P 500 index futures are going to make a sustained move higher, it is going to have become less volatile first. Thursday was a small step in that direction, as the index had an inside day for the first time this month.
The high, established in the premarket (4282.25), was only 16 handles from Thursday’s high. The low, established in the regular session (4207), was well above Wednesday’s low (4152).
For today, even though the index was actually in the red by 18 handles, closing at 4257.25, it seemed like an up day. The reason: the index began the regular session deep in the red, made a new low, but had a robust rally from 1:15 PM until late in the session. The rally emanated from 4213.50 and peaked a few minutes before the close at 4257.25.
That accounted for a 54 handle rally in a session that only had a total daily range of 75.25, of which 60 handles of it were in the regular session.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was by far the biggest winner of the top components of the index. The company announced a long-awaited stock split (20 for 1) and a $10B share buyback plan. For the session, the issue gained $150.97 or 5.4% to close at $2936.35.
That was nearly 6% better than the cash index’s decline of 0.42%.
The biggest loser of the top components was Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). The issue opened much lower, which turned out to be near the high for the session, and did not participate in the mid-day rally. For the session, it declined by $4.43 or 2.7%.
PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: Asana Inc. (NYSE: ASAN)
Another casualty in the growth technology after a Q4 beat, but the issuance lower EPS for Q1. Read more on ASAN here.
